“Space Drawing “series

'“My drawings are born through the communion between the material and the spiritual, wherein my own self is constantly reflected emptying itself.”

- Sun K. Kwak

In creating restrained and refined expression with mundane, mass-produced masking tape as a medium, the juxtaposition of value-of both medium and of expression- underscores my effort to strike a balance between polarizing principles. As a medium, black masking tape freely shifts between two and three dimensional planes. Through the pliability and the accessibility of ordinary black masking tape, I aim to designate the lines as an extension of myself. The process signifies my effort to unite myself with the medium as it weaves its way unhindered through varied visual and environmental spaces. Kwak transferred into the black lines orchestrates the dynamism of manifold energies generated between the architecture’s idiosyncrasy and its surroundings. Structural tensions are now liberated into a new ‘pictorial reality’ where the viewers are invited. As they step into these three dimensional drawings, their visual perception is expended to another dimension of time and space. 

At the close of an exhibition, the space once again becomes blank as the black tape of the drawings is pulled off the wall and thrown out. This process of emptying the space is a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of life and my acceptance of the emptiness of that nature.  Yet the drawing lives on in viewer's memories as an imprint that leaves the space forever altered. My continued interest in and experimentation on the theme of “time and space” is apparent in the installation entitled "Moses' Choice" which consists of two large wall drawings on opposite facing walls and is inspired by the story of Moses’ parting of the Red Sea. In re-examining the pivotal moment of the nexus between his awe and religious challenge, my reinterpretation of the story takes form as dramatic drawings on curved corridor like walls reminiscent of parted waves. 

In the installation entitled "One Hundred One Hours of Conversation", the wooden floor of the gallery becomes a space of lyrical meditation with the placement of wave like patterns.   

While “Moses’ Choice” envelopes the viewers, "Space Take-out" becomes a part of the surrounding environment, inviting passerby to become spectators. The tape drawing is placed in a gallery show window facing a busy roadway: traces of the drawing’s afterimage are carried away by passengers in speeding cars and by passing pedestrians.  

“Untying Space” is tunnel-like corridor space enclosed by two rhythmic, flowing walls has been created.  The passageway starts at the top end of ramped entrance, facing viewers entering the space. The installation presents itself with three different elements in harmony: The corridor slopes and winds through the interior of the gallery, drawing a bold line in the architectural space of the building; the flowing lines of the walls also trace the echoes and reverberations between them; lastly, the directional movements of the viewers in the gallery trace invisible lines themselves throughout the space. These energetic lines mingle and flow, creating a space of limitless wonder and possibilities. 

The work “Livable Drawing “ 2007 starts with my first impression of the gallery building, a reminiscent of story that a house in an unknown place, misplaced after a tornado has swept away. Black speedy lines embrace the exterior wall of a three stories high gallery building and soon, the lines have ascending features, maximizing surreal atmosphere of the gallery. With the work, the building lost its weight and rigidity, so a viewer experiences oneself in a whole new space as one enters into a gallery with a guidance of the fast-moving lines. The lines are a bit relaxed at the first floor, but they soon retrieve dynamics when they reach stairs; then, they soon stretch out into the outer space. The viewer experiences and encounters his or her subconscious space and time, finding oneself breathing within the Livable Drawing. 

Through the series of these drawing on space I visualize previously unseen space and time that existed only in our imagination and subconscious realm. This will project viewer’s another existential being proposed in this new space and time.  

 “Space Drawing" (공간드로잉)은 장소 특정적 드로잉 시리즈로 공간에 직접 제약없이 그려 나아가는 즉흥적 드로잉,  매스킹 테잎이라는 대량 생산되어 쉽게 소모 되어지는 재료를 찢어내며  온몸의 움직임으로 그려진  드로잉 선들이 켭켭이 쌓여진 명상적 시간의 흔적들로 이루어진다. 
 빈 공간에 주어진 시간의 제약속에 작업이 진행되고  그대로 관객들에게 노출되며 그 결과물이 전시되는데 그 과정은 커다랗고 텅빈 공간에서의  작가의 끊임없이 자신을 비워내며 자유케하는 과정이기도 하다.
이로써 비었던 전시 공간은 “Pictorial Reality” 즉 시각적 현실로 Transforming ( 탈바꿈)되고,  이 퍼포먼스적 드로잉 기록물들은 일정기간 전시된 후 폐기되는데 이는 삶과 죽음, 그 생명의 유한함과 덧없음을 상징한다.  

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